The present invention relates to a machine for muscular exercise, validly employable for training the muscles of the lower part of the body, which for the sake of brevity shall be indicated with the term "leg muscles".
Normally, exercise machines for training leg muscles are defined with the term "leg press" and are provided with a frame supporting a load unit, with counter-weight or electrical, with which a user exchanges power through a foot board able to slide along or movable by means of corresponding guides associated to the frame itself. This foot board is opposed to a seating station wherein the user positions him/herself, setting his/her feet onto the foot board itself, performing repetitive exercises of extending and retracting his/her legs.
In known machines, the user's feet push against the foot board while remaining nearly at the same distance, both in the retracted position with the legs bent, and in the extended position with the legs straightened. Proceeding in this manner, one does not obtain, with known machines, an effective exercise for the leg muscles as a whole; for example, the abductor muscles do not receive any significant benefit as a result of the exercise. Moreover, in known machines the ankle area is often subjected, especially in the position with the legs retracted, to excessive and inappropriate stresses and stretching.